Has anyone tried saturating the whole article in epoxy so that it becomes a solid object, or just the eye parts? Sven Yrvind uses this technique with ropes and chords to make various parts of his boats. 

That looked very interesting, Mauro!
If it works in light winds, it should work in any winds. I will keep your version in mind.

Cheers,
Arne

Eeerrr,
maybe that appendix about the improved Johanna-style sheet needs another appendix.
The shown photos below (Photo Album 8) unveil what has happened. Due to the hard stretch, the ‘inner hole’ has been pulled into a rather narrow slot. I noticed on the last two outings, last month, that one sheetlet tended to go a bit slack. I concluded that one sheetlet was getting a bit jammed, so the load was not evened out properly.

I still like the soft euphroe, as it is light and not that hard-hitting. However, there is room for improvement. I guess I must either squeeze in a thimble in the inner hole (the one to the left), or I will have to make a new euphroe from scratch, with at least one thimble (or Barton ring) in it.

Cheers,
Arne

Anonymous wrote:

Webbing loops...

By all means, if you like the look of the sewn grommets, then go ahead.

However, from a technical point of view, grommets are not needed at all in cambered panel junksails.

The loads in junksails are mainly along the edges where boltropes from rope or webbing (or stout tablings) sit. I have made seven junksails now, and none of them had a single grommet in them. Instead I have used webbing loops, mostly of different size. No problem with them.

Thanks!

I suspected as much due to the lower forces, but I tend to the of the "overspecced" clan when it comes to kit I make myself.

And I do love the look of them.

/Pär

Good question!

Honest answer is I don’t know. The whole design process has been a case of doing tonnes of research (naturally forgetting over half of it), looking at what’s available easily to me and then suck it and see. The boat lives on a lake where the weather doesn’t change that quickly and you’re only ever eight minutes away from a safe mooring. It felt quite sensible to experiment. With regard to the grommets, I’ve seen many lug sails using stainless steel grommets and reasoned that whilst my sail is bigger than most of those, the “unsupported areas” are MUCH smaller… of course in this reasoning I didn’t take into account the large displacement difference between some of the lug sailed boats and my own. I will definitely keep you updated as to how they perform/last over time.

Sewn grommets are so beautiful! Aside from how well they function I love the jaunty looks they bring to a sail… maybe if my grommets fail one by one I might try the proper way of doing things. Does anyone else have an idea on how well the grommets will last (depending on many varying conditions obviously)?

Anyway, thank you for the question and apologies for not being able to deliver a useful answer.

All the best,

Zachary.